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Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance is generated. This means that the particular outcome sequence will contain some patterns detectable in hindsight but impossible to foresee.
These approaches combine a pseudo-random number generator (often in the form of a block or stream cipher) with an external source of randomness (e.g., mouse movements, delay between keyboard presses etc.). /dev/random – Unix-like systems; CryptGenRandom – Microsoft Windows; Fortuna
Random numbers are frequently used in algorithms such as Knuth's 1964-developed algorithm [1] for shuffling lists. (popularly known as the Knuth shuffle or the Fisher–Yates shuffle, based on work they did in 1938). In 1999, a new feature was added to the Pentium III: a hardware-based random number generator.
It was covered under the now-expired U.S. patent 5,732,138, titled "Method for seeding a pseudo-random number generator with a cryptographic hash of a digitization of a chaotic system." by Landon Curt Noll, Robert G. Mende, and Sanjeev Sisodiya. From 1997 to 2001, [2] there was a website at lavarand.sgi.com demonstrating the technique.
If one has a pseudo-random number generator whose output is "sufficiently difficult" to predict, one can generate true random numbers to use as the initial value (i.e., the seed), and then use the pseudo-random number generator to produce numbers for use in cryptographic applications.
A USB-pluggable hardware true random number generator. In computing, a hardware random number generator (HRNG), true random number generator (TRNG), non-deterministic random bit generator (NRBG), [1] or physical random number generator [2] [3] is a device that generates random numbers from a physical process capable of producing entropy (in other words, the device always has access to a ...
This page was last edited on 8 December 2016, at 19:37 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
Random number generation in kernel space was implemented for the first time for Linux [2] in 1994 by Theodore Ts'o. [6] The implementation used secure hashes rather than ciphers, [clarification needed] to avoid cryptography export restrictions that were in place when the generator was originally designed.